Last weekend CART did a ‘Time Team’ on an Operational Base (O.B.) in an undisclosed site in Dorset…

Shallow trenches revealed the ‘elephant shelter’ corrugated steel, and glazed ceramic ventilation pipesLooking down, the start of the escape tunnel can just been seen at the base of the concrete blocksThe escape tunnel with debris fillThis is a possible handle from an entrance / escape hatchThe main chamber where the patrol would have ‘gone to ground’ in the event of a German invasionBuried water tank with protected filler tapCloth material covered the water tank, that on closer inspection showed to be camouflaged.

Turns out it wasn’t so secret. Every second visitor from nearby houses had played in it as a child!

The main point is that it is now recorded and will be added to the CART website.

This July 1944 document comes from a recent, very generous donation to CART of documents from an East Anglian Group Commander. These are still being catalogued and photographed, as almost 200 pages!

We hope in due course to bring some of these things to public view, as part of our website redevelopment. In the meantime here is the document requesting numbers required from each Group Commander. Note that the men were required to pay 6d each for their badges! They were to be made available to men who had left Auxiliary Units, though in practice, few if any seem to have received one.

As can be seen, there were strict instructions that they could not be worn in wartime. The design was conceived specifically for these enamel badges and was intended for wear in “mufti” (in civies) not as part of uniform.

Our favourite example comes from a Pathe Newsreel (see picture) of the Prince of Wales presenting colours to the Royal Regiment of Wales in 1969. Legendary Welsh WW1 VC “Stokey” Lewis was an Auxilier in WW2. His medals are now in the Lord Ashcroft collection having been privately purchased. They are on display at the IWM, though we believe without the Aux Units badge

Thus the badges were produced in wartime, but with strict instructions not to be worn until the end of hostilities. Perhaps they didn’t see the ‘end’ of the war taking quite such a long time..

September: Coleshill WW2 weekend, Coleshill, Oxfordshire WATCH THIS SPACE – this is going to be a BIG event: Coleshill House is where the Aux Units underwent their specialist training 1940 – 1944

The whole of the Granary will be filled by CART, The Scallywags, BROM (British Resistance Organisation Museum) and The Bob Millard (Aux Patrol member) Collection, marking 75 years since the Auxiliary Units were officially stood down… more information to follow…

Social Media can be an amazing thing. Through CART Facebook (British Resistance Archive – Churchill’s Auxiliary Units), we have ‘reached’ 5,289 people and counting, (through us and those that have shared the post such as The Pillbox Appreciation Society), we’ve had 2,267 engagements, 241 direct ‘reactions’ 24 comments and 27 shares. Keep up the good work !

In the early summer of 1940 Churchill would instigate the formation of the secret ‘Auxiliary Units’ due to the threat of a German invasion. ‘Irregular warfare’ was already being researched and what existed was amalgamated into a civilian network of Operational Patrols (guerillas & saboteurs) and a Special Duties Branch consisting of spies, messengers & wireless radio-operators should invasion and occupation have taken place.

Born into a well-connected family in Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Churchill would go on to have a contentious political and military career. He escaped from a Boer War POW camp, lectured around the world, was an artist and published historian. As an MP he held many important ministerial positions. He served in WW1 before going back to politics.

On 10th May 1940, the same day that Hitler invaded the Low Countries, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.

Our Press Officer Andrew Chatterton delivered a talk to the Newton Poppleford Local Historical Society. Also our Devon researcher, Nina Hannaford brought along a display with information on the local patrols and Special Duties Branch which went down really well.

We already have a couple of new leads for both the Aux Units and Special Duties Branch in East Devon as a result.

On Sunday 11 November, the National Service of Remembrance will be held at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, London.

Starting at 11am, the service will commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women involved in the two World Wars and later conflicts.

This year, Remembrance Sunday falls on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Many of the Auxiliary Unit Patrol Leaders were First World War veterans.

At the moment there will be 14 marching (watch out for D25), a mixture of relatives and CART researchers: David Hancock, Roger Green, Charlie Hancock, Polly Hancock, Paul Jarvis, Alan Jarvis, James Miners, Michael Miners, Philip Merricks, Robert Macaulay, David Macaulay, Jim Gascoyne, Wallace John Hewett and Anita Griggs.